Twilght: Sonic Style
by AluminaHeaven
Summary: When Leah leaves her hometown of sunny Santa Fe to go live with her dad, Max in always rainy and gloomy Lexington, she thinks she's stuck.But when a red and black hedgehog catches her eye, she starts to believe that he is not who he says he is.
1. Preface

_Preface_

I'd never given much thought as to how I would leave this world --- though I'd had reason enough in the last few months --- but even if I had, I would have never imagined it like this.

I stared down, across the long darkened room, into the gleaning eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me. It had appeared that his eyes had a tint of red in them.

Surely, it was a good, decent way to leave this world. If it was for the one I loved, then I would have gone through any death. I know that I wouldn't have died in vain.

That should be worth something.

I know that if I hadn't gone to Lexington, I wouldn't have even been in this position right now.

But that's okay.

Out of all this pain I'm feeling, my heart still aches with love. I could never ever regret the decision that I've made.

When life gives you an opportunity that nobody else in this world can have, you should take it. But don't grieve over it when it doesn't turn out to be the 'something' you've always dreamed of.

The hunter twisted his mouth into a friendly smile as he began to walk towards me. But I knew better. He was ready to take my life away as quickly as it came.

And I was willing to let him do so.


	2. First Sight

First of all, for all of you people who read the first chapter and said something like this, : ' Oh, she just took the whole book and just made it over again using Sonic characters', here's what I have to say to you: Screw you. Second of all, I didn't do that. Though it is true that I am using all the same scenes and stuff, I didn't copy the dialogue or description or the book. I tried to make it as close to the story as I possibly can without making it looked like I copied the book over again. Third of all, I changed all the character's names, though they will have the same personality, I sorta changed the way some of them act. And I made some characters of my own, because there's just so many parts in here and not enough Sonic characters to fill them.

Now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy!

_1. First Sight_

_My mother had driven me to the airport. Today was the day that I was going to exchange sunny Santa Fe for the always-rainy, dark and gloomy Lexington. It was 90F outside. The last time I would ever see a temperature that high in a long time. I didn't have many friends, so I didn't have to worry about long, hurtful goodbyes. But some gave me a few keepsakes. One gave me a cactus, to remember the dryness of where I once lived. Another had given me a scrapbook of all the things we did together, which wasn't much. But somehow, she still managed to fill it up to the brink with dozens of picture. I even tried to give myself a farewell present by wearing all of my favorite clothes. A nice light blue camisole under a very detailed yellow blouse, and very dark blue jeans. But in my arm, I had had a thick, heavy dark blue sweater that I was told specifically by my mom that I had to put on immediately after arriving in Lexington.. But I didn't mind. It would help me to fit in, and maybe possibly become invisible within the town. I even didn't really mind that it covered my present to myself. But I highly doubt that anyone in Lexington wore any color that was brighter than blue, but if I wanted to make a good impression on this town, try and stick out as much as possible. _

_Not that this was my first time being here._

_My mother and Father had, in fact, both lived here when they're were married. But my mother finally had broken out of this gloomy town just when I was a few months old. After that, I was sentenced to spend a month every summer there until I turned the age of 14. That was when the madness had to stop. I had forced my father, (who I've always called Max, but never directly to his face.) to come stay with me in Santa Fe, New Mexico for 2 ½ weeks rather than a whole month._

_But today was the day that I was going to take a permanent vacation in Lexington. A trip which I've never intended a desire to go on in the first place._

"_Leah," my mother had said to me right after I gave my ticket to the flight attendant – "Please, you don't can stay here. You don't have to go. Stay with me."_

_As much as I would have loved to have said, ' Sure, mom. Let's go home.' , I knew I couldn't do that. And as much as I would rather have had a sunburn than to be soaked with rain every day, I couldn't have that. And then, while I looked up into my mother light green eyes, I realized something. My mother was what some people would call hare-brained or naive. How could she ever take care of herself properly. As free willing and childish as I knew her to be, I bet that she wouldn't even remember to go to the grocery store half of the time. But she did have her boyfriend Jared to help fend fo herself. And the bills would get paid. No more frequent blackouts._

"_Please, mom. Trust me, I want to go." I said as convincingly as I possibly could._

"_No you don't. You're a horrible liar, you know that?" She said with tears starting to come from he corners or her eyes. Despite her age, she looked so young that sometimes people would confuse us as sisters._

"_Don't worry. I promise you that when the first thing goes wrong, I'll be on the first plane back." I said truthfully._

"_Tell Max I said hi, and give him a kiss for me." she said, her voice shaking a little._

_I nodded my head twice, saying," Bye mom, I love you." Then I gave her a hug._

"_I love you too." she said squeezing harder._

"_Don't worry," I said while letting go, "It'll be fine."_

_I slowly started to walk into the dark corridor leading towards the plane. The place I could see for the time, the place where I've spent the last 17 years of my life is leaving me behind as I fly off onto my imminent doom. _

_But the plane ride's the easy part._

_Being in the car with Max is going to be the awkward part of the entire trip._

_But he had basically set me into the high school, and was trying to help me buy a new car (well, actually 'used'.) But all that is on my mind is the car ride. What could I talked to him about? We didn't exactly have that much in common. It seemed that after today, the only thing that we would have in common is these big chocolate-brown eyes of ours, and the fact that both of us are squirrel Mobians. I brushed my bushy tail nervously. But how much can you have common with a person you only saw for half a month every year? But I guess I have to deal with it, since I'll be living there now._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_When I got off of the plane slowly, I saw my father, and that he started to have a small smile appearing across his lips. 'My little girl is finally home,' he must be thinking. But the background behind him was what I had been focusing on more. The rain was drizzling on the see-through glass, making little patterns in it. That was the only reason why I couldn't smile when I walked towards him. What mad me even less likely to smile was the fact the I could never see the bright, glowing ball of sunshine I've grown so accustomed to. When I put my two lightly packed bags down in front of him, he had quickly given me an awkward hug. Not that it was in a weird position. You try to see how you feel when you hug someone that you see for only about 2 weeks every year._

"_How are you kiddo?" Max had said happily as he possibly could._

"_I'm good. It's nice to see you too." I answered a little bit sarcastically._

_He picked up my two scarcely packed bags and moved his head awkward as if he was telling me to follow him. When I realized that that was what he was doing, I quickly ran to catch up with him. _

_I was always slow at realizing things._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

"_Do you remember Harold from the Canyon Rio reservation in Luna de Azul?" Max tried to pronounce in his best Spanish, but failed miserably as he put my bags in his regular-every day car. I was just glad he didn't bring the police cruiser. The last thing I want is for every to know that the chief's daughter has returned home for good. _

"_No, I don't think so."_

"_Well, maybe you might remember him from all the fishing trips we used to take with him._

"_Oh, okay." I said while nodding as the scarce memories of the stranger with us, when we went fishing many years ago._

"_Well, he's paralyzed now. So, he can't drive. But he has decided to sell it to me cheap."_

_My eyes widened as he said that sentence. I always wanted my own car. So I wouldn't have to ask anyone to take me somewhere. I could just go. But then something hit me._

"_What do you mean by cheap?" I asked curiously. I didn't want to buy something that was way out of my price range._

"_Well, here's the thing. I kinda already bought it for you."_

_My face probably looked like I was speechless (which I was), because when I peeked sideways across the car, I saw a smug smile appear across Max's mouth._

"_Dad, you really didn't have to do that. I mean, Mom already gave me some money for a car and–"_

"_Well, that can go to your college fund." he answered simply._

"_But I have to pay her back." I said, my voice shaking a little from the excitement of having my own car. And for free._

"_I'll give her back to money." He said, not taking no for an answer._

_I sighed and eased more into the car seat._

_After about 2 minutes of silence and the hum of the engine filling emptiness, my father had said suddenly, " Just think of it as a present for you deciding to come here. I know that it must be hard for both of you and you mom for you to come here. But I promised you, you'll warm up to this place in no time." He said while he patted my thigh._

_Little did he know that I had no intention of ever being happy here. But I would at the very least try. Though I knew that wouldn't work._

_After 20 minutes of talking about what had happened in our lives in the past year, how thw weather was here and in New Mexico, we ran out of things to say. We just stared out of the window. That was when I found out the at this place wasn't as gloomy as I'd remembered it to be._

_It was green._

_Very green._

_Maybe a little too green._

_Every tree branch was covered in a copious amount of moss. From the canopies to the base of the tree was covered with some amount. I got a little dizzy from the excess of green in this place. Green was slowly becoming my least favorite color. Yet it subtracted the gloominess from this tiny town. I could almost call this town beautiful._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx_

_After a while, we finally made to the house of where I was sentenced to spend my time at._

_Max's house._

_It was very a nice green color, but sadly,(for me), on the sides of the house, there were signs of moss that were very prominent. That made me fell a little nauseous._

_But all of those feelings went away when my eyes went towards the metal object on the street. It was old, rusty, with the car being the same color as the rust. A deep, yet faded brick red . I don't know why, but I instantly had little pictures of myself in this broken down mess. But I loved it. It was my broken down mess._

_I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt to get a better look at my car. If I didn't trip while getting out first._

_Which I somehow managed to do, even though I got out as carefully as I possibly could. My dad noticed my little fumble got out of the car quickly and (without tripping) ran to my side to help me up._

"_Leah, you have to be more careful. The ground is very slippery when it's drizzling out." He had said while lifting me to my feet._

"_Is that my car?" I said brushing off his comment, but taking it in consideration for later._

_I started to put my sweater on and the hood, while he was saying,"Yeah," while he had a slight blush on his face. "Do you like it?"_

"_Like it, no. But I love it! Thanks so much." I said with pure happiness in my tone. _

"_Wow, I never thought that you would actually 'love' this thing." He said while hitting my truck on the left side._

_Which I did not like at all._

"_Hey, no disrespecting the 'truck'." I said while emphasizing the word 'truck'._

"_Well, okay, okay. I'll go get your bags." Max said while backing off and walking towards his car._

_I started to walk around my 'new' car , and checking out from all the angles I took one of my hands and moved it across one of it's bumpers in the front. I could feel some of the paint come off on my hand. I looked at my hand and there was, indeed, a small amount of paint on my hand. I quickly wiped it off on the back on my jeans, and quickly ran inside Max's house after realizing that he actually did leave. He put all my bags near the stairs. I looked all around the house, as if taking it all in at once. But then I turned to see all of my school from age 5 to just when I turned 16 two years ago. I looked into the kitchen and saw the brightly colored yellow cabinets that my mother had painted while trying to bring color into this dreary house._

"_I bet you're thinking that this house never changed, right?" Max had said suddenly while leaning against the door frame to the kitchen._

"_Yeah. It was like I remembered it last year." I said while walking around the house, trying to find some difference._

"_Well, you know how busy I can be. I just never have the time to decorate."_

"_But you kept everything exactly the same. Some people at least change the curtains every once in a while." I counteracted when I returned to the kitchen._

_He nodded, agreeing with me. "Maybe I never wanted to change anything."_

_There was a silent breeze filling the entire house._

"_I'm gonna go upstairs to unpack." I said, now feeling more uncomfortable than before. I took my bags and ran upstairs (thankfully without tripping) without sparking an answer from Max._

_If I remember anything about this house when I grow old, I would always remember that my bedroom here was on the west side of the house facing the front line. I remember out of all my years here in the summer, little kids playing outside. But I had never been here in the winter, so I did not know what to expect. I hesitantly opened the door and had seen that Max really had never changed this house at all._

_It was a very simple room, with wooden floors, and light blue walls, with the peaked ceiling being a nice cream-white color, like the outside of the house. The bed was a simple dak brown twin size bed with a multi-colored quilt folded on the foot of my bed. There was also a rocking chair from my little spent time here when I was just a tiny little baby. The curtains were a nice bright yellow, which made me remember that nice warmth that I should fell on my skin right now. But didn't A tear had started to well up in my left eye, but is should not let it fall. At least not until night fall._

_I put my bags on my bed, and started to unzip them. I have to remind myself that I have to go shopping this weekend. I looked into my bags. My mom had desperately ran all over the state of New Mexico to find me some winter clothes. She even tried to go on the internet, but when she tried to pay for it, she realized that she had not payed for credit card in 3 months. So I'm stuck with what she had to buy in New Mexico, which wasn't much. After I finished putting all my clothes inside of the small dresser that a dark brown across from my bed, I turned around to see that there was a calendar posted next to my door. I realized that I didn't even know what today's date. I knew that today was a Sunday, so I started to walk over to the calendar. I looked down at it, and had seen that today was January 18__th__ . Tomorrow would be January 19__th__. The worst day of my life. Just thinking about had started to make the tears swell up again._

_After I finished unpacking ,I had taken all my things I had needed to freshen up, and walked up another flight of stairs to go to the communal bathroom, which I had to share with Max. I wasn't very thrilled about that, but it was yet another thing to deal with here. I knocked on the bathroom door and opened it, so see if anyone was inside. When I saw that there was no one in side I walked in quickly and closed the door behind me. I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed. It turned out that no matter how much time you've spent in the sun, it would never change the color of your fur. I knew that I would never ever fit in with these people here. I had very light brown fur, compared to Max's deep brown, and my mom's chestnut. It was like my brown had been watered down, though it was close to my mother's color. I looked almost of a milk chocolate color, only 3 or 4 shades lighter. I took a brush and started to brush my slightly dampen brown hair, which was somewhat tangled. While I was brushing my hair, I remember, all the colors that would appear in my hair in the sunlight. Different shades of brown, with some red and blond highlights that you could see some what, but they were never very prominent as the different shades of brown. If I couldn't find a comfortable spot within 500 kids, let alone 3000 people in my old school, how could I even hope to find one in a school that has significantly less?_

_I could never deal with people very well at all. I could never find that one person that I could be myself around. Even my mom who I could consider my best friend in the entire universe, was never someone who I was in any real harmony with. It was like we were never on the same page. Maybe there was something about me that people instantly rejected me, as soon as they saw me. Maybe there was something my brain, that made me this way._

_But that didn't matter. All that I had to worry about is the effect of my ways. Tomorrow would just put the dominos in place._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx_

_Lexington High school, in rainy Lexington, located in the state of Washington, had a scarcely amount of kids at that school. It totaled to an amount of 357 (now 358) students,. Where I used to live, there was more than 500 kids in my Junior class alone. This town was a considerably small town. That means that everybody had known each other. Their grandparents had been playmates when they were toddlers. Which also means that I would stick out like a sore thumb. And what would make me stick out even more was that I was the chief's daughter. Max was the Police's Chief Murphy, which would me more of a bruised thumb, than a sore one. But what had worried me most was the fact that I was going to be the new girl. I was going to be a curiosity to all these people here. A freak, a weirdo. _

_I couldn't sleep well, because of my crying episode, but hopefully that would been that last time I would ever happen. At least for a long time. It was probably that fact that I was in a different environment, that made me not go asleep until midnight. The rain was never ending, which drowned out my little crying fits._

_I sat up and got off the bed to walk to see outside of my window. When I opened I thought that we had a blizzard, and I wouldn't have to go to school today. I felt a little joy, until I realized that it was just fog._

_Really thick fog._

_I sighed and went to go get dress. I try to find some of warmest clothes, but I just settled on the sweater I had yesterday, and some light blue jeans. I went to the bathroom, yet again, and brush all the tangles out of my hair. I took a quick shower, and blow dried my hair , so that it was easier to manage. I got dressed and looked at myself in the mirror. I had a couple of bags under my eyes, but I thought that it made me look prettier.._

_Breakfast was a very nonchalant event. We sat on opposite sides on the table in the breakfast nook. We talked a little about the school, and the weather outside. Well he had wished me good luck and that I would make new friends at the school. But I didn't take that seriously. I knew from the start that I would never fit in._

_After finishing his breakfast, Max had to go to work, which was his second home, and his wife and kids. I stayed in the breakfast nook to get a better look at the kitchen, which had dark patterns walls of the colors blue and brown, the bright yellow cabinets, and white marble floor. Just as I had said to Max yesterday, nothing really hadn't changed. I looked at the table, seeing a framed picture facing Max's seat, on it. I picked up and it seemed it that I knew the reason why my father didn't wan anything to change. It was a picture of my mom and Max and me, when I was a just born, taken by one of the helpful nurses. I smiled a little bit, by seeing how happy they were. Usually when people take pictures, it's fake happiness. But this was true happiness. I got up from my seat and walked into the very, tiny family room, to see all of the pictures from my first day of school, to just last year. I had seen all these pictures when I walked in, but now getting a good look at them, I realized that they looked little embarrassing to actually see how I changed through out all of my school years. But they are actually not as bad as I though they were. But then, at the end of the travel through my school years, I had seen a few pictures of me and my mom. It had appeared that Max had never gotten over my mom, while back at home, my old home, mom's definitely move far away from Max. I felt a little shiver go down my back. I had to get out of this house, now._

_I grabbed my waterproof boots, and put them on. They had felt very unfamiliar to me, even though I had them on all day yesterday, trying to break them in. I put on my hood, and braced myself for the drizzling rain. I had to take big careful steps ,just so I won't trip (again). I grabbed the house key and quickly walked outside to the inside dryness of my truck. _

_Inside the truck it was nice and dry, just as I expected. Max probably cleaned it up, but it still had the distinct smell of gasoline, and tobacco. I crossed my two fingers while I slowly put the key into the ignition. It had quickly roared to life, to my joy. But I knew something was bound to happen while I was driving, so I slowly put my foot on the gas, and drove off as carefully as I possibly could. I sure didn't want to be at school early._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_Finding the school, wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. It was, like most things, right off the highway. But the houses that had lead to the school were very interesting. They had all been nearly identical, like the ones in a community. But getting to the actual school, was very hard. There were so many trees and shrubs blocking the sign, that I couldn't see at first glance. _

_When I finally found the sign that lead to the school, I circled around the school a couple time so that by the time I got in to the entrance, there wouldn't be any students roaming around, no one to notice me. I parked around the sign that had said: FRONT OFFICE. I decided that since I didn't want to go around the school, like a complete idiot, I would just get directions. _

_I turned off the toasty truck, and unwillingly steeped out of it, but not before putting my hood on first. I ran down a stone path lined with dark hedges. I took a relaxing, and deep breath before beginning my school career in these wetlands. I felt a little tear come down my face. I quickly wiped it away._

_It was bright inside, because of the fluorescent light hanging from above . The office was surprisingly small, off to the side was a little waiting area with a couple of padded chairs. I walked over to the counter where there was 3 desks which there was a black fox woman who was wearing glasses She was also wearing a dark blue t-shirt, which immediately made me feel like I was over dressed._

"_Can I help you?" she said while looking up from the papers that were on her desk._

"_Um, I'm LeighAnn Murphy," I informed her, using my full name. I saw the awareness in her eyes as soon as she heard my name. Pretty soon, that was going to happen with everyone else here. I've been the big topic of gossip. I could almost hear people taking about me in my head. I've come home, indeed._

"_Of course," she said happily. She went down into one of her desk drawers, and went deep inside of it until she found what she was looking for. "Here we go," she said with a file in her hand. She got up out of her seat and walked to the counter. She opened the file onto the flat surface. "I have your schedule, right here, and," she said while going below the counter and pulling up a piece of paper, " A map of the school." _

_She highlighted all the best and quickest route on the map, and she said that I might have to backtrack a little but it wasn't that much. She then gave me a slip of paper that I had to have every teacher that I had sign it, and I was to bring it back to her at the end of the school day. While I was walking out, she wished me a good day in school, and welcomed me to Lexington. I turned around and gave her a very convincing smile._

_I ran out side into the rain, and saw groups of students roaming around. Guess I did get to school early after all. I wondered why I didn't hear the bell ring. I put on my hood and tried to blend in as much as possible. I was surprised to see that there were many cars that were a lot like mine. Old and rusted. That made me a little glad. Where I used to live, in sunny Santa Fe, it wasn't very rare at all to see a Porsche, or Mercedes-Benz driving into school. But the nicest car I saw here was a practically brand spankin' new Volvo, and it stood out a lot. Like it wasn't even funny._

_When I finally got into my truck, it was still toasty and warm. I looked at the map the secretary had given me and tried to memorized that and the routes and the schedule. If I actually worked at something, I could memorize just about anything. Then after that I took a deep, relaxing breath. Hopefully no one will notice me. And if they do, they won't bite. I took my bag from the bag of the truck seat and slowly stepped out of the car and started walking with the students into the school._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_My first class was in building 3. Once I got around the cafeteria, it was easy to spot. There was a large white 3 on a black square, made it very easy to see. I hoped that all the buildings were labeled like that. I felt myself having butterflies in my stomach when I saw myself approaching my first class. I noticed myself starting to hyperventilate when I followed two unisex rain coats through the door._

_The classroom was smaller than I expected. Every one was talking to their friends so no one would notice me give the paper to Mr. Monroe. He was a black fox, just like the secretary, and he was also wearing glasses. He looked at me confusingly, and then looked down at the paper and I saw his eyes widen. I could feel my face turning red when he looked up at me. He sent me to the back of the room, to my relief. No one could turn around to see me without getting trouble with the teacher._

_But they somehow managed to do that, and the teacher managed not to notice them doing that. I just kept my eyes on the reading list Mr. Monroe had given me. It was pretty simple, and I had read these books already. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Faulkner. It made me feel a little comfortable, but also a little bored. I wished my mom would send me my old essays from home, but I knew she wouldn't. She would said that I was cheating. But I how could I cheat off of something that I wrote myself? I pondered that for a moment. _

_More like the entire period. Before I knew it, I had heard the bell make a droning sound and every suddenly disappeared out of the classroom. I grabbed my bag and walked outside. While I was going to my next class, someone stopped me. It was a dark green hedgehog, who coincidently was wearing glasses as well,_

"_Aren't you LeighAnn Murphy?" He said, looking like one of those overly helpful, nerdy chess club types._

"_Actually, it's Leah." I corrected him. A couple of people stopped to hear the conversation we were having._

_He nodded, as if making a mental note about that. "Where's you next class?"_

"_I have Government next in um,... building 6." I said, pretty glad I memorized my schedule so I wouldn't have to check in my bag._

"_Well, I'm going to building 4, so I could show you how to get there..." he said, a little too friendly. "I'm Arthur, by the way."_

_Definitely over-helpful._

_But I smiled, saying: " Thanks."_

_He put his jacket back on, while I put up my hood, and we were back in the rain once again. I saw a few people so close to us, it was like they wanted to hear us talking. But I thought I was being paranoid._

"_I'm guessing that this is a lot different than Santa Fe, right?" he asked suddenly._

"_You have no idea."_

"_I also guessing that it doesn't rain as much like here, right?"_

"_Three or four times a year."_

"_Wow, what's that like?"_

"_Very sunny," I said with a little sad tone in my voice._

" _You don't look so tan." He said confusingly but also interested in the reason why._

" _I'm part albino."_

_He stopped in his tracks and looks at me with a apprehensive look. I sighed, guessing that the rain doesn't go very well with sarcasm._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_We had walked all the way back around the cafeteria, towards the buildings where the Gym was. Arthur walked me straight to the door, even though the big 4 on the side of the building gave it away._

"_Well, good luck. Maybe we might have some classes together ." He said, sounding hopeful._

_I gave him a convincing smile and opened the door slowly. When I turned around, I saw him waving at me, but I pretended not to notice him._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX _

_The entire morning had become like a routine. The only thing that was different was that my trigonometry teacher, Mr. Johnson (who I've hated anyway from seeing his name next to the word 'trigonometry') had made me introduce myself to the entire class. When I did that I stammered, and blushed. Then, I tripped on myself when going to my seat. Stupid waterproof boots._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_After going to all of my morning classes, a few of the faces I saw were starting to become more familiar to me. There were a couple of people who were brave enough to introduce themselves to the new girl and ask me questions about how I like it here, and how I'm adjusting to here. I lied to them, saying that I think that I am going to adjust quickly, and that I just have to get used to the weather. But sometimes I made myself feel like I was telling the truth, but I reality, I was just becoming a little liar._

_One of the girls who sat with me in Trig and Spanish walked with me towards the cafeteria for lunch time. She was a pink cat with had crazy dark curls in her hair, compared to mine. She also stood about 3 or 4 inches shorter than me. But that hair of her made up the huge difference in our heights. But I never bothered to try and remember her name, but she talked so much that there wasn't a time when I could ask her what her name was._

_We sat at the end of the packed table that was filled with all of her friends, who she introduced to me. I instantly forgot their names as soon as she said them. They seemed surprised that I was even at the table, let alone sitting with them. The boy who helped me in the beginning of the school day, Arthur waved to me from across the room. I gave him a tiny wave back and a fake smile. While I was talking to 7 strangers who obviously had somewhat of an interest in me, was when I first saw them._

_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_They were sitting in the farthest corner, probably as far away from me as possible. There was 5 of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating either, though they had trays full of food. Yet they went untouched. I couldn't really tell what all of them were staring at as long as it wasn't me._

_None of them look like they should even know each other, let alone be sitting at the same table. One of the three boys, a red echidna, looked very strong, like he spent his entire life inside of a workout gym. Or at least looked like he belonged in the Olympics. Another, an orange fox, looked leaner, but still somewhat muscular, and looked like he was little uncomfortable. The last one, a black and red hedgehog, was probably the one who looked most like a student here than any of the other boys, who looked like they belonged in college, or even have a working job here._

_Then there was the girls._

_The girls were complete opposites. The tall one who was a white bat, like a statue. She looked like she belonged in a Playboy magazine rather than going to this school. I could only wonder how high her self-esteem must be compared to mine. In that case, it would br very high indeed. The short girl who was a rabbit like a little pixie, looking so young that I questioned if she had skipped a couple of grades. She was so thin, that it looked like she wouldn't even fit into a size 00._

_5 people looking so different, but yet, so alike at the same time. They all had dark circles under their eyes, like they'd stayed up all night studying for something. Or maybe they could sleep at all, worrying about an important test. But I could not find myself looking away for them._

_It was just then when I saw the pixie girl get up from her seat, (or more like jump down) and go dump her uneaten food away. But it looking like she was dancing towards the garbage can than walking. I watched in amazement as she 'waltzed' back to her seat. No one had even noticed when she came back to her table. They just kept staring in different directions. I tried to look away before one of them noticed me, but I still found myself deciding which one was the most attractive, the Playboy model, or the boyish-looking one._

_I finally forced myself to look back at the table that I was sitting at. I tapped the shoulder of my neighbor, who was the one who walked with me to lunch. She looked up are me with a question look, accustomed with a "hmm?"_

"_Who are they?" I asked while moving my head towards the table of beautiful strangers._

_While she was looking back to see who I was talking about, the one who looked boyish, looked up at her, and then put his eyes towards me. It appeared that he had red irises, a strange eye color. He looked away quickly, much more quickly than I did, like it was almost a blur._

_We both turned back at the same time, with blushes starting to appear across both of our faces. My neighbor started to giggle in embarrassment, and she turned red all over._

_After her little giggling fit, she finally started to talk. "The stronger looking one, the one who looks like he should be a bodybuilder, that's Knuckles.. The only who look like he's uncomfortable and is like he looks smart, that's Miles. The tall girl who looks like a super model is Rouge. The short one's Cream. Honestly, I think doesn't even belong in this school, but she coulda skipped a few grades or something. But they all live with Dr. Robert and his wife."_

" _What about him?" I asked curiously while I quickly looked at the boyish looking one. He was still staring at me with an interested look on his face. The exact opposite of what I had wanted him to do._

"_Him?" she said while having a little giggle fit. "That's Shadow. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't get your hopes up. According to him, he doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls are good-enough for him." She said, dejected, clearly a strong case of sour grapes. I wondered when did she get rejected._

_Just to be sure that I wouldn't burst out laughing. I quickly stood up to go dump my lunch, which I barely touched._

_While I went to go dump my food, I suddenly realized that the girl that I was talking with, her name was Allie. I made a mental note of that, just to make sure I don't forget._

_When I came back to my lunch table, I realized that all of the people we were talking about earlier had gone and left. That was quick._

"_Hey, Allie?" I questioned._

"_Yeah?" She answered suddenly._

" _Is Robert their last name?" I said with curiosity at the weird sounding name._

"_Well, to tell you the truth, nobody really knows their last name. Not even the teachers. The only thing that everybody knows about is that they're really quiet and smart. But they're very enigmatic. In fact, the only thing that people know about them is that they're adopted from different families."_

"_Have they always lived here?" I asked, pretty sure that I would remember people like them in my short visits to the gloomy place._

"_Well, no."she said as if it was so obvious that they didn't live here before, even like someone like me, who was somewhat new to this town. "They moved from someplace in Alaska about 2 years ago."_

_I nodded taking that into consideration. So they know what it's like to live in a different place than where you used to live. But they look like they haven't adjusted well at all. I felt a shiver going down my back as I wondered if I would turn out like that if I didn't adjust either. Just the thought of it made me want to try harder than before make friends._

_ XxXxXx XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_

_I had been sitting with Allie and her friends way longer than I would have__ if I sat alone. __Which had made me a little nervous about being late to one of my classes on my first day. One of the people who I've talked to at lunch, whose name was Kayla, had Biology II with me next period. She was a black and white cat, who also had (ironically) worn glasses as well. I was starting to wonder how many people wore glasses in this town._

_As we both walked inside of the classroom, Angela had walked to one of the lab seats that was probably her seat. Someone else had sat next to her while she greet__ed __them. She already had a partner. In fact, everybody had a person to work with._

_Except one._

_When I went to give the paper to my teacher and introduce myself to the teacher, I had recognized Shadow, by his unusual hair color right in the center row, with the only empty seat in the class._

_The teacher had given me back the slip of paper and given a black book and told me to go into the only empty seat in the class, since there was no place else. Guess I won't have to introduce myself._

_I started to walk down the aisle towards my newly assign seat very slowly. I try really hard not to stare even though it was very hard not to. Then, I managed to trip on myself again and I grabbed a hold of the nearest desktop. The girl sitting there started to giggle a little. I made the accident of looking up into his eyes. His eyes – they're were very hostile, and furious. Almost like I was his antagonist. I walked to the empty seat and immediately noticed that he was leaning away from me, as far as the table could allow. And sitting on the sitting on the very edge of the chair, and adverting his eyes away from the edge of the table, where I was destined to sit, made me feel like I had B.O or something.. I sniffed my hair as inconspicuously as I possibly could. It smelled of tropical fruit, which was the scent of my shampoo. It was a pretty innocent odor. Maybe he was repulsed by that scent. But I never knew anyone who was. I put my hair down on my right shoulder, making a curtain between us and tried to focus on the teacher's lecture on cellular anatomy._

_Which was boring._

_I had already learned this at my old school, making it seem like I was better off in Santa Fe. But I still took notes on everything the teacher was saying._

_But I couldn't help but peek through my hand-made curtain to look at this strange boy next to me. He never relaxed his stiff position, looking like he wasn't breathing, or was trying very hard not to. I could see that his left hand was balled tightly into a fist. He looked almost like a statue. His right hand was on the table, also balled into a fist, showing off all of the veins in his arm. His entire arm had looked surprisingly hard and muscular. Looks like seeing someone from a distance and seeing them up close, you can notice many different things._

_I tried to focus as much as I possibly could so that I wouldn't look through again. So I made a game for myself: Write down 5 bullets of notes, and get a peek. You could only imagine how many pages I had filled with notes._

_After filling yet another 5 bullets of notes. I tried to look up again, but then immediately looked down at my notebook again. He was looking down at me, his eyes completely filled with disgust, as if he had known that I was doing this act of looking up at him in regular intervals_. I noticed that his eyes were no longer the bloody red that I had seen in the cafeteria, but were now a charcoal color. The term 'if looks can kill' and 'curiosity killed the cat' suddenly ran through my mind.

Before I knew it, the droning sound of the bell, indicating that 6th period was over had rung. Before I knew it, the strange boy that was sitting next to me, was gone, already out of the door, before some students could even gather their things. I noticed that he was much taller than I imagined him to be. I started to feel tears swell up in my eyes. I already had somebody who obviously hated me, and I wasn't even finished with my first day of school yet. I slowly felt my temper start to break out and I balled my fists tightly, just as the boy next to me had done.

"Excuse me, but aren't you LeighAnn Murphy?" I heard a male voice ask.

I had looked up to see an baby-faced fox, whose fur was a deep brown, which added on to his babyness. He smiled a warm, friendly smile as I started to gather my things. He was one of the very few people who had talked to me ally day that didn't where glasses. And definitely think that I smelled bad.

"Actually, it's Leah." I corrected him with a smile.

"I'm Andy."

"Hi, Andy."

"Do you need help finding your next class?"

"Actually, I'm headed to gym, I'm sure I could find that."

"That's were I'm going too!" he said, sounding thrilled. But that probably would have happened anyway with the school having a little over 350 students.

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We walked all the way to gym, having a very interesting conversation. He'd lived in California until he was 12, so he'd missed the sun almost as much as I did. It turned out that he was in my English class as well. He was the nicest person I'd met today, as well as the one I had talked to the most to.

Once we entered the gym, Andy had asked me," So, what did you do to make Shadow so pissed at you? Usually the guy doesn't talk or do anything, but when you sat next to him, it looked like he couldn't even breathe."

I stopped in my foot tracks. So, that wasn't his normal behavior at all. I gave myself a little smile and decided to play dumb.

"Leah? You okay?" he said, sounding concerned.

"That was the boy I sat next to in Biology?" I had asked nonchalantly as possible.

"Yeah, it looked like he was in pain or something."

"I don't know, I never spoke to him.." I said.

"Well, if I sat by you, I would talk to you." he said a little too friendly. He lingered by me for a few more minutes, talking to me, before the gym teacher had ordered him to going and get dressed. I gave a little snicker before heading into the girl's locker room.

I took out my paper for the last time, and asked him to sign it for me. He then found me a uniform, but had not told me too get dressed which was find by me. The only problem I had I this class was that it was mandatory for all four years, while at home, it was only required for two years. This was the only thing that had made me feel like I was in my own personal hell.

That and my Biology class.

Watching four volleyball games, and almost getting hit by out-of-bounds balls, I saw many of my memories of getting injured, (and injuring others) suddenly went through my head. I felt a little sick to my stomach.

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The final bell at last.

The day was over.

Now I just have to go through this process for another 6 months.

Not to mention my school year.

The rain was gone, that was a good thing. But the wind was very strong and cold. I felt wrapped my arms around myself to try and keep warm. When I had walked in the warm FRONT OFFICE door, I felt the urge to turn around and go back out.

The strange boy who sat next me, Shadow, was standing at the same exact desk that I went to went I came here about 8 hours ago. I quickly went back into the hallway where I entered. It appeared that he didn't notice that I had entered. I pressed my back against the wall, waiting for the receptionist to be free.

He was arguing with her, trying to get any class for an exchange of his 6th period biology.

Any other time.

I just couldn't believe that someone could hate me so much that they wanted to switch classes just to stay away from me. I felt the tears starting to well up again for the second time in about an hour.

I felt a gust of cold wind suddenly fill the room rustling the papers on the desk. I started to walk back inside of the office. It was girl that had came in, put a piece of white paper in the wire basket, and then walked back outside. I now stood towards the back towards the small waiting area.

I saw him slowly turn around in my direction, with his face, purely handsome, but were plastered with piercing, hate-filled eyes. I felt a great wave of pure, unadulterated fear sudden engulf me. But It was only for a couple seconds, as he then turned back around and say, with his voice dripping like honey, " Never mind. I can see that you can't do anything." he then, moved closer towards the receptionist's face, ans then said,"But I can at least thank you for what you tried to do."

And with that, he quickly walked out without saying another word, or looking at me. For, that, I was glad.

I walked meekly to the desk, my face having a blank stare on it, and I handed her the white slip with all my teacher's name on it.

"How did you enjoy your first day?" she said sounding very maternal.

"Pretty good," I lied, my voice barely audible. All I could think about were those dark eyes looking at me. She didn't look convinced.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

When I walked back to my truck, I silently got in and let myself just stare into blank space, thinking bout what had just happened. But pretty soon, I felt my temperature go down so I turned on the car and the heater, and let myself drive all the way back to my 'new' home, letting a few tears escape, finally.

Looks like I was going to have another crying fit when I go to bed again.

Well that's all folks!

You don't even want to know how long it took me to type ths.

I hope that it's good!

But first let me give you the cast of the characters:

Leah (pronounced: LAY-ah) .... Bella

Shadow....................................... Edward

Knuckles......................................Emmett

Rouge..........................................Rosalie

Cream...........................................Alice

Miles "Tails" Prower..................Jasper

Arthur............................................Eric

Allie................................................Jessica

Kayla...............................................Angela

Andy................................................Mike

Max...................................................Charlie

Lilly...................................................Renee

Harold................................................Billy

That's all I could really think of right now.

I really hope you enjoy!

I'll be sure to upload as soon as I possibly can, but these chapters are just too damn long.

_

See ya!


	3. Open Book

2. Open Book

I had awakened from my sleep with red eyes. I spent the entire night, thinking and crying. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. Maybe I should call my mom and beg her to take me back into her home. I just couldn't believe that I had made an enemy on my first day of school. I couldn't comprehend the fact that someone could give such a glare that was filled with pure hatred. When I was driving home, all the tears coming out of my eyes had blurred my vision, and I had almost driven off the highway. When I had finally got home, (well, I still couldn't call it my home yet,) I quickly jumped out of the car, not caring if I tripped on myself a couple of times with my stupid water proof boots, ran inside, ran upstairs to my room, plopped on my bed and just started crying. I cried like there was no tomorrow. I cried as if my life depended on it. All this had happened because of a strange boy giving me a look of hatred, as if we were always mortal enemies. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered me. But, this time, it was different. I had never thought that you could actually hate someone who you haven't even talked to. I remember giving out little whimpers while the scene kept replaying in my head over and over again. I also remember realizing something.

How could I go through this every day for the rest of the school year?

How could I sit next to someone who had completely and utterly hated me with all of his heart?

He even tried switching classes, he hated being near me that much.

I had remember my mother telling me that in situations like this, you should confront the person and ask them why they're acting like this. But I knew that wouldn't work. He'd probably give that glare again and tell me to never speak to him again. And with me, always being passive, I would agree silently.

I guess sometimes what mommies and daddies tell you won't always work in your lifetime.

This is High School. Of course it wouldn't work.

I'd probably get stuffed in a locker if I ever confronted a bully about this.

This was all I remember thinking about before I found myself awakening from my sleep.

Had I been crying so much that I don't even remember blacking out?

I felt my warm face. It was sticky and wet from all the tears I had cried. I quickly looked at my clock and saw that it read : 5:17 a.m in bright blue lights. I gave a quick sigh of frustration. Only 20 minutes until I actually had to wake up. I moved toward the edge of the bed. You know what they say: The early bird catches the worm. Even though I really didn't feel like being an early bird.

As I walked to the upstairs bathroom to wash away last night's tears, I had a feeling that today was going to be a tiny bit better than yesterday.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Just as I'd hoped, the day was a little bit better. But also worse.

The pros of the day was that there was no rain, which had meant no waterproof rainboots, or falling down. Well, maybe not the falling down part. But even so, Lexington was still covered with dense and gray-colored clouds.

I had friends who were greeting me at the parking lot of the school, and I knew most, if not all of the student's names at this school. But I was very confident that I knew all the faces. I had at least two different people who didn't talk to me yesterday, ask me if I wanted to sit with them. But, even so, I quickly denied both offers. I had already knew that I had been claimed by Allie and her little posse on the first day. And I didn't mind.

I had no longer felt like I would never, ever fit in with these people. But I knew that I had a small chance of ever linking with anyone in this town.

Even though, very sadly, the cons of the day was that I felt oddly tired, though I had blacked out during my crying fit.

Another con is that my trigonometry teacher, Mr. Johnson had in fact called on me in class, knowing that I wasn't paying attention, and my hand wasn't raised. And all the students had turned around to see if I would get the right answer. I felt my cheeks turning a warm red color. And after all that, I still got the answer wrong. The students all turned back around and continued to talk about had just happened. I leaned lower into my seat.

Are all teachers wanting to humiliate their students?

Many more cons had happened in this day, that I'm not really willing to go into detail about (especially that whole basketball incident), but the most utter and horrible con is: lunchtime.

It was only 49 minutes from Biology, and I had spent all morning dreading this period. All morning I kept wishing that something would happen that would prevent 6th period from happening. Like the school would instantly catch on fire, or a chemical explosion would happen, or even aliens would abduct some students, and the school would have to be on lockdown while they look for the students. But even I knew I wasn't that desperate.

But what would I do? What if I accidently bumped into him? What would I say? Well of course sorry, but what would I say about yesterday? I would probably just keep my head down and be on my way.

I walked into the cafeteria, trying to camouflage within the group I had walked in with. I started at the table that he was sitting at yesterday.

But there was a slight problem.

I counted over and over again making sure I wasn't wrong. But it was pretty simple math.

There was 4 people at that table. And if I'm correct, there's supposed to be 5 people there.

Was he sitting alone?

I swept my eyes carefully across the cafeteria.

I didn't see him.

He was not here.

I took a deep sigh of relief as I walked with the rest of my group.

I even think I smiled a little bit.

But my whole group of 6 people were automatically stopped. Well, actually more like steered.

Andy had somehow steered our entire group towards his table. Allie didn't fight back and went to go sit with him, along with me and the rest of her friends. But somehow, Andy had gotten a seat next to me. He tried making conversation with me, talking about an trip to the beach, though I was really confused as to how people can go to the beach in this kind of weather and in the middle of winter.

It was really hard to make conversation with the people at my table, as I kept letting my eyes drift towards the little table in the corner, watching to see if 5 people would suddenly be at the table instead of 4.

But nothing had changed.

Only 4 people sat there.

I hated today's Lunchtime because of that.

Just the fact of seeing 4 people instead of 5 made me tense. But then I started to wonder. Did he not come to school because of me? That thought almost made me cry. It could be he got Lunch detention, though I highly doubt that. Or maybe he just left school early, for a doctor's appointment.

This is the fact which is what made my Lunch, the worst period ever of the day.

The biggest con of the day.

All of a sudden, I heard a loud shrill noise.

The Lunch Bell.

Lunch is over.

He never came.

But there's still Biology.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

I had a little bit more confidence as I walked to Biology with Andy. Though he was showing the qualities of being a sidekick, I hoped that he wasn't sticking in this business for long. Truthfully, it had bothered me a little.

I held my breath as I approached the door. When I had walked in, I saw that he was not in his seat. I exhaled sharply, and went straight to my seat, with more confidence than ever. Andy, still by my side lingered around my assigned seat until, after hearing the bell ring, went to go sit next to a girl with a really bad haircut.

Something had to be done with Andy. This could not go on.

As I eased into my seat more, feeling much more relaxed, I half-listened to the teacher's lecture on Mitosis. I had already learned this in my old school, but had decided to take notes anyway.

But for some reason, I couldn't shake this tiny sense of deja vu . I checked on the right side of my table. He wasn't there. But for some reason, I could have sworn I felt his presence next to me.

This place must be driving me crazy.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

When school was finally over, and my face was finally gone of all the blush from the basketball incident (don't ask), I had changed back into my acid-washed jeans, and dark green sweater. I ran out into the parking lot, now filled with students waiting to get on with their Tuesday plans, though I wasn't going to do the same thing.

When I had raided the fridge two nights ago, considering the fact that I never left my room yesterday, I had realized that all Max had in his pantry was Instant Oatmeal, and some cereal and in the fridge was bacon, eggs, orange juice, and a six-pack of root beer. That was when this morning, I had demanded that I be the assigned chef during my stay here. I wasn't going to starve while I stayed here.

When I went in inside my truck, I looked in the passenger seat to make sure that I had the jar appropriately named FOOD MONEY and my shopping list, and I was off to the Supermarket.

I hesitantly turned my truck engine on, It created a loud, deafening roar. Many heads turned toward the direction of my car. I felt the blood rushing towards my cheeks again. Good thing my windows are tinted from the inside.

As I tried to get into the long line of the escaping cars in the parking lot, I saw 4 people approaching the new shiny Volvo I had seen yesterday. It was the same exact people who made my Lunch period hell. And they didn't even know it.

When I drove past them, I had this strange sensation suddenly rush through my body. It felt like someone had reached into my inner core and replaced all my emotions with hatred and guilt. And all the while, I could also feel all of them staring at me, even though my windows were tinted.

Which meant they couldn't see me.

My truck was on the other side of the parking lot from them.

Could they be watching me from 200 feet away?

No one has that good eyesight.

But even so, I felt as if they peered straight into my car as if my window were clear as day.

I felt a little unsettled.

Okay, very unsettled.

I could feel their eyes staring at me even when I had left the parking lot.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The supermarket was not far away from the school. But also like the school, it was just off the highway. All my emotions had been put back to somewhat of a normality for me when I had seen the Supermarket parking lot.

No hatred. No guilt.

Just the same sadness I always had when I first came here.

But just being within a radius of a supermarket made me feel a little more comfortable. It was my best friend back in New Mexico.

I felt a tiny wave of tranquility suddenly rush through.

I was just like I was at home.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

When I finally came home, even though part of me didn't really want to, I stored all the groceries in their correct places (and I didn't have to worry about not having enough room). After that, I had started to make dinner. I took out two potatoes and put them into the oven on a pan (wrapped in foil of course) and put the steak in the fridge with some marinade..

I took my backpack upstairs and threw it against the hard wooden floor. I was a little amused when I found it on the other side of the room. I didn't even throw it that hard. I walked over to the other side and picked it up. I threw it on my bed only to find it on the far side of the bed. Do I have more strength because of this place? I walked to the far side of the bed and picked it up yet again and set it down gently on my bed. I changed from my school clothes into some comfortable clothes (just a blue sweatshirt and some black shorts.).

After finishing all of my homework, (which was actually really confusing because I really didn't pay much attention in any of my classes today) I had opened my laptop in had started to check my email for the first time since I came here.

Deleting all of the spam and junk mail, along with reading some of the emails a couple of my friends had sent me, I was down to three emails.

All from my best friend of course.

My mother.

I took a few deep breaths before opening the first one. It appears that it was sent 3 hours after my arrival into Max's house.

_Leah,_

_You have absolutely no idea how empty this house is without your presence. Even though I could barely tell if you were home when you were still here. I wish you were here to help me pack for Florida. But at least I have Jared to help me. Please open this as quickly as you possible can. You have to tell me how your flight was_. _You must have some jet lag. Oh, by the way, have you seen my dark blue jeans? I probably packed them with you, even though I have absolutely no idea why. But if you do find them, you can keep them. It'll help you cope easier with your situation. I miss you so much, you have no idea. Love you with all my heart._

_Mom._

I could have sworn I felt a tear coming down after reading this.

I quickly jumped off the bed and went straight towards my dresser to look for the lost jeans. When they weren't there, I quickly ran to my duffle bag of clothes I had brought, and dug through it. When I found them I started crying and hugging themwithall my strength. I folded them and put them neatly into the dresser drawer_. _Iwiped my tears away and satback down in my bedand continued to read the rest of the emails

_Leah,_

_Did you get my last email? Please write back soon! Love you._

_Mom._

That was from 5 hours after the first one.

I looked at the last one and it was from 7:00 a.m this morning. I would have been out the door already, and on my way to school. Looks like my mom didn't take into consideration the different time zones we were in. I took a deep breath and opened the last email.

_LeighAnn,_

_Should I not receive another email from you by 5:35 p.m, I will call your father and ask him what is going on._

_Mom._

Since I didn't see her usual signature saying that she loves me, and the fact that she only used my full name when she was angry, though she knew I hated it when people did that, she was pretty serious.

And that doesn't happen very often.

I looked at the clock on my bedside. It had said 4:38 p.m. But considering that each email kept getting more impatient, I didn't have much time left.

"Third time's the charm," I said murmured to myself.

I had started to type....

_Mom, _

_I'm sorry that I didn't sent you any emails. It's just that I was just trying to adjust to everything happening in my life right now. And you were right. I did have a little jet lag. Another reason for you not receiving anything. School was a little boring, but what else is new? I found some new friends, and I'm starting to feel like I could really fit in here._

I laughed to myself as I typed that. I still wasn't really sure if I could ever fit in, or be at the very least be happy here.

I continued typing....

_But guess what? Remember how you gave me money to help me buy a used car? Well I don't need it. Max bought me a truck!_ _He said that the money you gave me could go into my college fund. Unless you want it back? I still have it._

_But anyways, I miss you too. But I'm not going to be on the computer all the time. I'm trying to make new friends, so I'm not going to be home all the time_. _Just take a deep breath. Just calm down._

_Love you more than there are stars in the sky (and there are a lot of them),_

_Leah._

I shut down my lap top, and decided to go down stairs_ to _check on the potatoes that were in the oven. I took them out and almost burned myself because of it.

"Note to self: Use oven gloves next time." I said to myself while putting my hands under cold water.

I put the potatoes into a glass bowl and smashed them with a fork. I added some milk and some cream, and put all different spices.

I took the steak out and started to cut it up into small pieces and started to cook them in a pan.

Just as I was finishing the steak tips my dad walked into the house. I heard him taking the bullets out of his gun, and then heard a drawer opening. I guess he doesn't trust me enough to know I won't shoot myself. I wasn't that depressed to even think of doing something like that.

"Leah?" he said while walking towards the kitchen.

"Who else were you expecting?" I asked a little sarcastically.

"So what's for dinner? It smells really good." he asked nervously. My mother was what you could call an eccentric cook. My father must have gotten used to her usually inedible dishes and wondered if any of those genes have gotten passed onto me. It bothered me a little that he remembered that much and that far back.

"Don't worry Dad. I assure you, everything that I make will be edible." I said noticing his wariness. "We're having mashed potatoes and stirfry." I added confidently.

He gave a big sigh of relief, and walked into the living room, knowing that he was going to eat well tonight. I gave a quiet laugh, just seeing his expression when he found out what I was making. I continued to cook the steak and the fresh vegetables I bought today from the supermarket.

When the food was finished cooking, I went to go set the table, and make some lemonade.

"Dinner's ready." I called standing near the doorframe.

He left the T.V. on and walked into the room with much confidence than ever he was going to have a good dinner.

I walked back into the counter and gave him a glass and poured some lemonade in the glass.

"Did you really have to go all out like this? I mean, you don't have to cook all these detailed foods." He said while looking at his plate.

"Don't worry about it. I actually wanted to do this, Dad. It's fine."

We both had sat down and ate in silence for a little while. Max tried breaking the ice by asking how school was today.

"It was good. I made some friends to eat with. They're pretty friendly."

Except for one person.

"Really now? See, what did I tell you? Nobody's going to bite at someone like you." he said before drinking some of his lemonade.

"Yeah. You were right Dad." I said while playing with some of my food.

We ate in some more silence until it was my turn to break the ice. And I actually wanted to ask this question for a long time.

"Um, Dad? Do you know who Dr. Robert and his family are?" I asked very slowly and hesitantly.

My father had stopped eating. He looked up at me with brown eyes identical to mine. I gave off a little laugh into the awkward silence.

"Yeah, I know them. They're actually a pretty nice family. Their kids don't get in trouble, so that's load off my shoulders." He said as he continued eating. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I find it pretty odd that no one knows their last name. I mean, how would they get credit cards or letters in the mail?"

"I never thought of it like that. Well, maybe they have a reason for that."

"And their kids," I said ignoring his comment, " The kids, they– they don't seem to fit in with anyone here. I haven't seen anyone even talk to them in school. It's like they're in their own little world." I said, lost in my own thoughts.

I found my way back into reality when I was shocked by the tone of Max's voice. He sounded angry.

"He's one of the best doctors that this town has ever had. He could have moved to New York or California, or someplace where he could make a living. But for, some reason, he doesn't want to go anywhere. He's fine here making minimum wage in a hospital. And his kids....from the moment I saw them, I knew there had to be some trouble from them. But there's nothing. Nothing at all. I bet they never even gotten points from their teachers. But, trust me, that's way more than I say for some of the other kids here. I mean, I know that this is a small town, but there's more things to do rather than get in trouble. At least Dr. Robert and his family go on tri-weekly camping trips. That's probably why they don't get into any trouble. If only some of the other parents ever heard of the phrase 'quality time' then maybe their kids would get in trouble a little less, or maybe not at all."

I sat there in silence. But I know something for sure: I would never, ever get in trouble. Even though I highly doubt I would be the kind of person to go along with things like that.

"So, um.... like I said, they're very nice, but they just keep to themselves a lot. They're also are pretty attractive." I said very slowly with blush starting to appear across my cheeks..

"If you think that the children are attractive, you should see how the nurses react to their father in the hospital. It's actually quite comical." Max had said while laughing quietly.

We gradually went back into silence as all the food disappeared from our plates. When Max was finished, he went to go and put his dirty dishes into the sink and took mine and started to wash them. When I told that I was perfectly capable of doing this action by myself, he shot me down saying, that if I could cook him food like this, then the least he could do is wash the dishes for me.

I sighed and went upstairs, for some reason oddly tired. I jumped into my bed and started to read _Wuthering Heights_ ; the book that we were reading in English, until I fell asleep, surprisingly quickly.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

By the time, Friday had arrived, I had gotten into a routine. It was pretty simple.

Wake up, go to the upstairs bathroom, get dressed, eat a quiet breakfast with Max, drive to school, be greeted by friends, go through morning classes, go to lunch (perfectly relaxed and not feeling tense), go to Biology, go to gym, go home, do homework, make dinner, and go upstairs until I fall asleep.

And to tell you the truth, I sorta liked this routine, it was simple and easy.

But there was one problem.

He still never came back.

Always when I walk into Biology, I had this tiny little part of me, hoping that he would be there, sitting like a statue, a tense look in his eyes, far away from my seat as the table could possibly go.

This thought always made me smile, just a tiny smile at best.

I even had this little habit of letting my eyes drift towards the table in the corner.

And every day, a little voice in my head had told me that _'Today was going to be the day. Today was going to be the day he's going to walk in'._

But thankfully, I was a little glad that the voice was always wrong.

Why didn't it give up?

I had.

Friday was the day that I had convinced myself that he transferred schools.

But I was saddened by the thought.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The first weekend I had spent in Lexington passed easier than I thought.

Max, during his rant against Dr. Robert and his family, had mentioned the phrase 'quality time' or something like that. Yet by the time Sunday had arrived, he went fishing with his friend from the Canyon Rio reservation, Harold.

So I had absolutely nothing to do.

I walked around the house, trying to go back on my summer memories of being here. Though I had no friends here, I remember going outside for long walks with Max. And all we did was just talk. Talk about what was popular in the news, what happening in New Mexico and here.

Everything.

I stared out side the window of my bedroom with a few tears dripping down my face. I felt as if Max and I were even farther apart than we used to be. Everything in my world was falling apart. And I was sure that no one was going to come down and save me from this nightmare. It was all going down under. Now, I had felt glad that my father had hid the bullets in a different place every day.

I quickly wiped the tears away, and got to work. I cleaned every single nook and cranny of the house. I was slightly surprised at how clean Max kept the house. I really didn't have to do much work.

Some of my friends had called the house to see if I had wanted to hang out. I didn't feel like going anywhere today, so I denied politely, saying that I had to go run some errands for Max, or I was in the house, doing chores, which wasn't completely all lies.

My mother called, worried about me. I hadn't sent her any email since Tuesday. She had gotten worried. It was her motherly instinct being kicked into overdrive.

Mostly what I did was stare out the window in the front of my bedroom, looking at the rain hit the window pane in uneven intervals.. There had only been one time that Shadow had crossed my mind. But I quickly brushed it away as soon as it came. I couldn't bare to relive my first day again. More tears had fallen after that action.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Monday was a slow day. I was going through the same routine as last week. But at least I was starting to warm up to this place. But just a little bit.

Just as Andy and I were walking out of English class, where we suffered a pop quiz, swirls of white powder had started to fall down from the dense gray skies.

"Ugh, snow." I said in disdain.

"What's wrong? Miss the dry, hot air?" Andy had said teasingly.

"A little bit," I lied. I'd rather be hot and burning than to be cold and freezing.

"Sometimes I wish it would snow in places like Hawaii or Australia and be super hot here."

"Actually, in some places, it does snow in Australia." I replied quickly.

"Oh, really? Like where?"

"Like.... oh, I don't know.... New Zealand?" I said sarcastically.

"Haha, very funny." Andy said while he stopped to bend down to the ground to pick up some snow.

I stopped in my footsteps as well. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Don't you know the term, 'Don't knock it before you try it'?" he said while looking down at the handful of snow he had in his hand. He started to pat it into a snow ball and looked at me with mischievous eyes.

My eyes widen as I realized what he was about to do.

"You're not gonna...." I started, not feeling that I had to finish the sentence. I took a few steps backwards as he started walking towards me.

"How are you going to hate something if you've never experienced it before?" He asked curiously with those same eyes. He had started to extend his hand above his head and moved it back a little.

Just when he was about to throw the snow ball at me, which I had a binder in front of my face as protection so that none of the cold white stuff will go near my face, I heard a smack sound.

I moved my binder down a little to see what happened. It appeared that someone had thrown a snow ball at Andy. I had a tiny smile across my lips behind the binder.

"Don't worry, Leah!," Arthur had shouted from 20 feet away. "I'll protect you from mean old Andy!"

So it was Arthur who had saved me.

"Andy, I gotta go," I said moving away quickly with my binder still across half of my face. I didn't want to trip. "I'll see you at lunch!"

"I'll get you sooner or later! Better watch out!" he said to me as he ran quickly towards Arthur.

Boys.

They never change, do they?

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

I walked towards the cafeteria with Allie, only half-listening to her again. The voice was back.

' _He'll be here today...'_

'No he won't....' I answered back to it in my head as I usually did.

"_Yes he will, I can feel it....'_

' You've been wrong every other time, so what makes you think that you'll be right today?'

' _Just wait and see....'_

And just like that, the voice was gone.

I still kept my binder in hand just in case if any stray snowballs that had originally been meant for Allie, would somehow hit me.

"What is up with the binder? You look really silly with it." she said while putting her volumnized hair into a ponytail, making up for the difference in our height even more.

"Well, I'm dry right?" I said a little sarcastic.

She just shrugged her shoulders as we went into the cafeteria.

I looked over towards the corner table.

My heart stopped.

My breathing became heavier than usual from my lack of oxygen.

My footsteps stopped.

I counted again, just to be right.

And I'd hoped that I wasn't

But I was.

There were no longer 4 people, as I had seen the majority of last week.

There were 5.

I felt a wave of nausea go over me.

I almost fainted.

I wasn't sure if I should be happy or tense.

I felt like I might die.

"Leah? Are you okay?" I heard a voice say.

"Yeah, you alright?" I heard another say.

'_Told you so....' _the voice in my head had said tauntingly.

I came back into reality to see that it was Allie and Andy, who was still covered in snow that was concerned about me.

I cleared my throat and said "Yeah, I'm fine. Just blanked out little bit." I gave a little laugh to make sound believable.

All three of us had walked to the table. I sat in my chair while everyone else had gotten up to get their lunch.

"You're not getting any lunch?" Allie asked me.

"I forgot my wallet. And besides, I had a big breakfast." I said, sounding warily.

"I'll get you a soda, 'kay?" Allie said before she walked away with Andy to go get their lunches.

I let my eyes drift over towards the their lunch table. They were all completely different than from the first day I had seen them. They were laughing. They seemed like they were having a fun time over there.

I turned back towards my table and laid my head down on the table with my hands under my head. I had suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and at first I thought it was Shadow, but to my relief, it was Allie, with the soda she had promised me.

"I bought ginger ale. You know, to help settle you stomach. I knew you sounded a little weird on the phone when I called on Sunday." she said, sounding very concerned. Although it wasn't necessary.

"You sure you're okay?" Andy said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah. Though I think that I might be sick.."

I opened the ginger ale, and took small, careful sips of it. One mistake, and I could be splurting it everywhere.

I looked over at the infamous table, now filled with 5 people (trust me, I counted so many times that there was no way I could be wrong.) I focused my attention more on Shadow, to see that the dark purple circles under his eyes from what I've seen on the first day were now barely noticeable. And his fur looked more filled with color. No longer a dull black with even duller red highlights, but now all shiny and with a sharper contrast.

Basically, he just looked healthier.

Like a whole shot of vitamin E was injected into his body.

At the very moment, he had stopped laughing, and had suddenly looked into my eyes, with no expression on his face.

I quickly turned back, a blush now starting to work through my system.

Allie looked at me for a brief second, and then looked in the direction that I was just looking at, and realized that I was staring at Shadow's table, which was back to it's movie-worthy laughing. She then looked at me again with concerned eyes.

She whispered, so the rest of the table wouldn't hear, "Although they're like, the most _gorgeous_ people here, it's a wonder why they don't have any friends. Maybe because it's that they're _too_ weird."

I nodded in agreement. It was true that they were a very attractive group, and they didn't have any friends.

My stomach churned with even more nausea.

But then I had thought about something.

His eyes.

The spilt second I looked into them...

They were not filled with pure hatred this time.

It looked like they were filled... with acceptance and friendliness.

That was a big difference than last week..

A very big difference.

When the lunch bell had rang, I felt dizziness overcome me.

I still didn't want to go to biology.

Even if he did look friendly this time.

But just as we were walked out of the building, I felt his presence next to me.

My heart pounded loudly.

I reluctantly looked to the right of me, and the same action on the left side.

He wasn't there.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard loud groaning noises. It appears that all the snow from this morning was now being washed away with a drizzle of rain.

'Aww, no more snow,' I thought sarcastically.

I'd never thought that I would love rain so much.

I put up my hood with great satisfaction, as the other people groaned in opposite emotion.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Once our entire group of 8 people went off into opposite directions to go to their 6th period classes, I found myself being stuck with Andy. I really didn't want to be around someone right now, and I was going to tell him that I wanted to be alone, but before I knew it, we were at Biology already.

No, it's too soon.

Way too soon.

But either way, I took slow foot steps as I walked into the classroom.

He wasn't here yet. That was a start.

I went to my assigned seat near the window. I stared out of it, imagining shapes in the dense gray clouds, until the voice in my head had reappeared.

' _See? What did I tell you? He's here today." _The voice said with a slight tone of gloating.

' Yeah at lunch. Maybe he was acting friendly because he found a way to switch out this class, so he wouldn't have to be near me. And besides, you're were only right once. Which means absolutely no bragging rights from you.'

' _Well, maybe he had a bad day that day and you just made it worse.' _The voice said, a little curious.

' No one acts that mean if they have a bad day. And how could I have made it worse? I never even talked to him.' I responded.

'_People can offend even without knowing it.' _The voice said before disappearing.

What the voice had said before made me wonder. Did I do something he didn't like? It certainly wasn't because of the way I smelled. I had felt tears ready to come out of my eyes.

"Leah Murphy? Mmm, that name has a nice ring to it." A voice, dripping with honey had said. It had immediately snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Actually," I said out of habit, "it's...."

I looked up to the person who had said my name.

And I made a deep gasp as I saw the person.

It was him.

Shadow.

"Leah," I finished, mesmerized with his way-too-handsome face. I probably sounded like an idiot when finishing that sentence.

He gave off a quick, musical laugh. "Isn't that what I said?"

I thought back. Oh, yeah.

I tried to come up with a reason, saying, "Well, s-sometimes, people pronounce my name incorrectly. Like t-they'll say _Lee-ah_ instead of _Lay-ah._" I probably looked like an idiot saying that.

"Well, I'm terribly sorry if I pronounced it wrong. I'll just call you LeighAnn instead," he said, sitting down in his chair. He pulled it closer to me, though there was a considerable amount of space between us.

I looked down at my notebook, realizing that I was staring at him the entire time.

"No, no, it's fine. And besides, you said it right. Unlike most of the people here." I said a little hesitantly.

He moved his chair a couple of inches closer before saying, "Why don't you go as LeighAnn?" he said as he moved his upper body towards me. "I think that it sounds much more prettier."

I cleared my throat as I felt some blush suddenly come across my cheeks.

Then I said, still keeping my eyes on my notebook, "You can call me that if you want to."

He let out a 'hmph' sound before turning to face the teacher. And then, as if on cue, the teacher had told the students to take their seats. He was going to start the lesson.

Thank God.

As the teacher for the third time since I was here droned on about all the phases and where the chromosomes were supposed to be, I couldn't help but think: Why was he so nice all of a sudden? It was like we were just meeting for the first time without most of the tension, though there was still some. I used my peripheral vision to look over at this strange boy. I was starting to think that maybe he was just a little bi-polar. Then I suddenly heard him make a quiet laugh that I was sure I was the only one that was close enough to hear over the teacher's droning.

After about twenty minutes, he then handed out our homework, which had looked more like a packet rather than homework, and said that we had to work on it with our lab partners.

Oh no.

Shadow took the two packets that the teacher had given him, and handed one to me. I took it, still staring at me notebook, which was what I had been doing for the past twenty minutes.

"What is so interesting about that notebook, LeighAnn?" he asked suddenly.

"It has magical powers that draw me in," I answered simply and a bit sarcastically.

It was kinda like flirting in a way.

He gave off a laugh of disbelief, and moved his chair even closer, getting rid of the considerable amount of space that we once had. I used my peripheral vision yet again and saw that he was staring at the notebook as well.

He then whispered softly in my ear, "You know what? You're right. It does have magic powers. I can feel it pulling me in as I speak."

I felt my eyes widen.

No one has ever gotten this close to me before.

Ever.

Well, except my parents of course.

My blush grew even more.

He moved back a little bit, but not enough to bring back that considerable space, and said, or more like murmured, "But I think that starting our homework is more important."

I took a deep breath. "Yeah, I agree."

"Okay, let's look at the first question. Hmm, what is exocytosis?"

"It's when the large particles leave the cell channels and fuses with the cell membrane to push the particles out." I answered quickly. It seemed all that studying I did actually had a purpose.

He looked at me, but I still kept my eyes on the paper he had given me, writing down the answer. I could tell his expression was surprised that I answered so quickly.

"That was really.... quick. You might be even better at this than I am. Now, what about the second question? I think that this might be prophase, but I'm not sure." he said, with a indifferent tone.

"Actually, it's interphase. See? Look at the chromosomes." I said, getting out of my seat, and moving towards him to point at his paper. When I pointed at his paper and told him the difference, he nodded and went onto the next question as if he already knew the answer.

When I went to move back into my seat, my hand accidentally brushed against his. I pulled my hand back quickly. It was so cold. Like freezing cold. But for some reason, I felt a tiny shock go through me. And it felt a little pleasurable, in it's own little way.

"Sorry," I said with a little awkward giggle.

He didn't respond in any way. He kept eyes on his paper, going through the questions very quickly. He was already on the bottom of the page.

I sighed and went to go work on my paper.

Looks like we weren't working together anymore.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

After 15 minutes of silent independent work, I only had one question left. But I had felt the need to talk with my partner again. He had his right arm supporting his head on the table, and was looking at all the other groups who weren't even close to finishing.

To try and get his attention, I let out an audible sigh.

And just as I expected, he turned my way and said with a little concern, "What's wrong?"

"It's this question. I don't really understand it." I said trying to sound confused.

"Which one is it?" he asked, taking his head off his arm.

"The last one. I don't get the diagram."

He moved closer to me, and I took a deep breath. My eyes widen as my brain registered what I just inhaled. His scent. It smelled so sweet.

"See? Like you told me the first time. Look at the chromosomes." he said, indifferent.

"Oh. Thanks."

I went to finish the last question with ease, with all the time, he was staring at me, with such interest in his eyes.

As soon as I finished, he said, "Well, it doesn't look like you needed me to finish that question."

"You gave the little boost I needed to finish." I said with a tiny smile.

"No I didn't. You're lying."

I finally got the courage to look at him, and realized something weird.

As I looked deeper into his eyes as I asked, "Your eyes.... were they always that color?"

He looked at me puzzled saying, "Well, to my knowledge, yes."

"Because, I remember them being a different color."

"I think it would be pretty hard to forget my eye color." he said, shrugging.

That was true.

Someone with red irises is definitely someone's eye color you wouldn't forget.

But I could have sworn that last week, his irises were a color that could be compared to black. But I was sure that they're were even darker than that. I went to look outside the window at the drizzling rain.

"So, when did you finally decide to come here?" he asked suddenly.

"Actually, I sorta came here by force." I answered, still looking out the window.

"Oh? How so?"

I turned back to face him, and got surprised. He was staring at me intensely, with curiosity.

"It's a pretty long story." I answered.

"Well, you can tell me next class." he answered, gathering his books together.

"Why?"

He pointed to the bell, and then again, as if on cue, the bell had rung.

He quickly got out of his seat, and moved gracefully towards the door.

And left me here.

Interested, confused, and amazed.

But for some reason, I could still feel his presence, smell his scent.

It wrapped around me, as if it didn't want to let go, until the end of forever.

As I started to gather my books I felt like I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay in this exact seat for as long as I could, and be wrapped with his scent forever.

But I knew I couldn't do that. I had to go to Gym.

That sucked.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

After Gym, I quickly ran out towards my sanctuary inside of my truck. I felt the rain prickling my face, so I tried to slow down.

As soon as I got into my truck, I sighed and took a deep breath.

What the hell just happened?

How could someone would was so mean to me last week be so nice. It was very mind boggling and it irritated me, but I couldn't come up with anything else.

And trust me, I really didn't want to convince myself.

He was bi-polar.

Very.

When I slowly backed out of my parking space, I saw Shadow and his siblings go into their shiny Volvo.

I tried to lower my eyes as I drove past them.

But, as I drove past, I could have sworn I heard Shadow whispered in my ear, as if he were in my car with me, _'I'll see you tomorrow, LeighAnn.'_

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Do you hate? _

_Do you love?_

_Give me your thoughts!_

_Just absolutely no flaming._

_(Just constructive criticism without being really mean. I have feelings too , you know.)_

_Or I'll sic Shadow on you!_

" _I wish you all sun, sea, and books." ~ NISIOISIN _


End file.
